


Hunger

by NightDragon5656



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: (not in a kinky way though), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Anxiety, BAMF Eren Yeager, Beyond the Walls, Blindfolds, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Canon-Typical Violence, Captivity, Death, Depressed Eren Yeager, Depression, Dismemberment, Eren Yeager Has Anger Issues, Eren Yeager Has Heterochromia Iridum, Eren Yeager Has Issues, Eren Yeager Has Panic Attacks, Eren Yeager-centric, F/F, F/M, Heavy Angst, Humiliation, Kidnapping, M/M, Minor Character Death, Night Terrors, Nightmares, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Psychological Horror, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Serious Injuries, Slow Burn, Titan Eren Yeager, Titan Forest (Shingeki no Kyojin), Titan-Haired Eren Yeager, Violence, enhanced healing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27672523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightDragon5656/pseuds/NightDragon5656
Summary: A fic where Eren was first a titan, and a human second.He has to learn to integrate within human society inside the walls, struggling to hide his newfound shifting ability and battling with the roles he's grown up into after he left his forest - a friend, a sibling, a soldier.
Relationships: Armin Arlert & Eren Yeager, Armin Arlert & Erwin Smith, Erwin Smith & Eren Yeager, Jean Kirstein & Eren Yeager, Krista Lenz | Historia Reiss/Ymir, Levi & Eren Yeager, Levi/Eren Yeager, Marco Bott/Jean Kirstein, Mikasa Ackerman & Armin Arlert, Mikasa Ackerman & Armin Arlert & Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman & Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman & Levi, Sasha Blouse/Connie Springer
Comments: 50
Kudos: 264





	1. Genesis

Deep shadows cast by trees no less than eighty meters tall darkened the forest below, shattered only by the slim rays of sunlight that broke through the canopy above. They illuminated the forest floor, reflecting harshly on silver metal blades wielded by small forms that flitted through the trees like a lethal murder of crows; beautiful in the way they soared above the deformed, monstrous beings crowding below them and fatal in the way those monstrous beings were slain mercilessly, deep redness splattering violently onto the great trees surrounding them. The small beings abruptly latched high onto the trees and stilled, blistering steam clouding the cool evening air from the swiftly disintegrating corpses of the titans below. A warm glow from the steadily setting sun bestowed light upon the creatures, victorious; not a single one of them had died even in such a tremendous battle. The only blood spilt that day was that of the enemy. He watched, eyes alight with awe for a few more seconds before disappearing as if he were never there, an enigma if there ever were one.

“Commander Erwin, we are losing light, it is wise for us to return to the walls, Sir.” Those words were the first spoken in minutes and tugged many members of the Survey Corps from their reverie, back to the reality that they should take advantage of the titan’s lack of movement whilst still retaining the ability to see where they are headed. “Of course, Mike. Everyone prepare to ride your horses back to the walls!”

Almost in unison, the Survey Corps descended towards where their horses had been left and set off, their mission of exploring further into the Titan Forest complete for now; they were set to explore further in a third expedition six weeks from then, assuming nothing else disrupted their schedule.

* * *

Back in the Titan Forest, another fight was occurring – one just as bloody and gruesome as the last.

Great redwood trees loomed above him, watching the abnormal fifteen-meter titan sprinting wildly through the forest towards a group of four other titans wandering aimlessly in his territory. Blood dripped sluggishly down brown bark, marking the swift deaths of two of the titans; one with their head ripped clean off, and the other’s nape crushed between exposed teeth now coated in the deep redness once belonging to the corpse slowly disintegrating at the fifteen meter’s feet.

A banshee-like roar made the ground tremble and even the largest trees quaked as another of the four was sent soaring through the misty, evening air and crashed abruptly into a tree sending leaves and branches tumbling meters and meters down to the forest floor. Luminous teal eyes flashed dangerously, blistering steam curling up into their vision path from where flesh and skin was rapidly knitting itself grotesquely back together; a mass of flesh was disintegrating on the ground after having been torn off by the seven-meter titan currently staggering to its feet from where it had been thrown. Ignoring the final titan, the fifteen-meter hurtled towards the third titan swaying perilously on its unsteady feet, looking up only to lose its head, eyes open wide and a glassy blue.

The fifteen-meter titan turned swiftly, thrusting the final titan into a nearby tree, its nape ruptured by acute teeth. A victorious howl sounded out, flocks of birds leaving their nests, petrified.

Rippling muscles climbed up a nearby tree tirelessly, the titan they belonged to knowing that he had to ensure his safety before succumbing to the potent pull of slumber – the night was already upon him but the forest floor was not safe no matter how many titans he slaughtered. They would always come back. Upon reaching a suitably high and sturdy branch, the fifteen-meter titan laid down in a hollow in the tree trunk: one large enough to encompass his entire body, and let his eyelids lower until the glow from his eyes was thwarted.


	2. Betrayal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy :) 
> 
> ( Youtuber Mode Activated: Please subscribe to be notified of future updates and please 'kudos' the work if you like it :))))) sorry that was so cringey lol. Oh yeah, and comment anything at all, even if it's about how you hate what I've written haha). 
> 
> It's a longer chapter this time, so tell me how you feel about the length! :)

The thundering of hooves broke the tranquillity blanketing the vast plains miles beyond the walls, shrieks of fear and bellowed commands joining them. A horde of at least seventeen titans, ranging from four meters all the way up to three fifteen meters, were hounding the Survey Corps on their third expedition to Titan Forest. It was where they were currently heading so that they could make use of the eighty-meter tall trees to escape and effectively decimate the titans pursuing them. Finally, as the soldiers on horseback raced over a steep hill, the colossal trees came into view.

Terror hung in the air like a veil of death even as the remaining members of the expedition stood safe in the trees. They’d only just reached the forest and already twenty-seven of them had been slaughtered; the perpetrators wailing hideously below, groping at the trees the humans were grappled onto. A hush fell over the humans, waiting for their Commander’s word and when it came, they flung themselves into battle with nothing less than a hundred war cries. Blood was plentiful, a mix of both human and titan – screams from both species split the air like shrill thunder and horror diffused into the air as if it were putrid smoke, clouding and tunnelling the Survey Corps’ vision onto these humanoid monsters.

When the skirmish was over, the silence was deafening: half-eaten corpses littered the ground and a fetid scent drifted up to the survivors in the trees once more. Nightmares would no doubt disturb these men for years to come, and many had to turn their faces away, eyes wide and haunted, pupils all but pinpricks of blackness in a sea of white. Another scream penetrated the air, heads whipping in its direction expecting to see another of their friends inside a great, slobbering mouth, blunt teeth crushing bones slowly and mirth dancing in deformed, bug-like eyes. Instead, they were greeted with the sight of what must be a fifteen-meter titan with long brunette hair and oddly proportionate, lustrous green eyes staring back at them placidly from within the trees.

Instantly, one of the Survey Corps members sprung into lethal action, rocketing towards the long-haired titan intending to slaughter it swiftly. Captain Ackerman never got the chance as the titan abruptly swivelled around at a one-eighty degree turn and bounded off further into the forest, away from the humans and with a large hand covering its nape. Levi stopped on a nearby branch, surprise causing his thin brows to furrow, looking back to his Commander questioningly.

“Go after that titan.” No sooner had Commander Smith’s voice sounded out than fifty men and women clad in billowing green capes rushed forwards like noxious gas in the direction that the long-haired titan had left in.

* * *

Panic gripped him in its vice grip, forcing his pupils to dilate in terror and his burning limbs to tremble. The fifteen-meter titan dashed through the forest, away from imminent doom. The whirring from the small creatures’ mechanisms grew ever louder and his breathing grew harsher with it until he could hear nothing but the sounds combining into a barbarous roaring in his ears. His vision tunnelled until the fifteen-meter titan could see only what was ahead of him, which only made him panic further at the prospect of being blind to what was occurring either side of him.

Flashes of green flickered in and out of his vision but he was too terrified to distinguish his assailants from the green of the forest around him. Branches whipped in his face and his feet crashed inelegantly on the woodland floor; he could feel the sharp pains of blades piercing and slicing his skin, though none managed to incise his nape.

Abruptly, the ground was rushing to meet his face and when it did, the pain came with it – a horrid shriek rived the air and the fifteen-meter titan curled up, scrabbling at his slashed Achilles tendon, howling with abandon.

The small creatures gathered around him, eager to kill.

But through his pain, the unique smell originating purely from other titans reached his sensitive nose – he had drawn them in with his screams. His eyes shot open from where they had been clenched shut in agony, and he whipped his head around in the direction that the smell was strongest; terror forced his healing to accelerate, and soon he was on his feet again. Yells from the small creatures blared out and he smelt pungent fear, confusion and fury congealing into one nauseating mix of emotive scents. Yet the fifteen-meter titan did not dwell on it – he was more concerned with both his and their safety; there were a lot of titans coming their way.

Had he spoken their language, he would have been able to discern hurried discussions about himself – whether the titan currently not attacking them was safe and non-hostile to humans, what had spooked him so suddenly, and in the case of Squad Leader Hanji Zoe, whether or not they could ‘keep him’.

Finally, the thunderous footsteps of the other titans came into earshot for the small creatures’ to become aware of them - apparently, they had much inferior hearing than he - and their attention was ultimately drawn off of the somewhat non-hostile titan they had previously been attempting to slaughter. Glad that the small creatures were focusing on the real issue, the fifteen-meter titan set off for the horde, and if the flickers of viridescence in his peripheral vision meant anything then the small creatures were joining him on this particular hunt.

If he was able to, then the titan would have smiled at this turn of events. Instead, his eyes gleamed and he roared his approval into the air, rattling the tense atmosphere with his unconventional sign of joy. It seems there would be a temporary alliance between him and this murder of jade crows.

The two armies clashed in an explosion of sound and a near-instantaneous splatter of scorching blood over the forested battlefield. Metal flashed in the sporadic rays of sunlight streaming in from where they penetrated the canopy of giant trees, and blood sprayed in beautiful carmine arcs where titans’ napes were separated from their hosts and fell to the ground with dull thuds. However, all this beauty and the sounds of war were lost on the fifteen-meter’s deaf ears and scarlet vision. All he could hear was the blood rushing in his ears as he used every bodily weapon he had to slaughter his distant brethren; his teeth tore into burning flesh, steam blistering his skin, his fingers clawed their way around other titans’ throats, tearing their useless heads from their blundering bodies and stomping viciously on their napes. He let out a challenging howl and many bug-eyed heads whipped in his direction. They swarmed him, as he’d hoped they would, allowing the small creatures a break and fewer deaths.

He realized rather swiftly that he had underestimated both the sheer amount of titans that had swarmed him and the ruthless betrayal the small creatures were capable of as the group unanimously turned from him, leaving him howling in agony and rage beneath a pile of monsters. The fifteen-meter titan watched dully as his former comrades rode away on their horses, back to wherever they had come from, leaving him to be torn apart and devoured by titans, fighting futilely all the while. The Titans were pulling him limb from limb, making him unable to reverse his fate; his healing was in overdrive, burning steam clouding the sun and evaporating the blood that his body lost at an accelerated rate. It was making him lose energy fast, however, and the flailing of his limbs that had been reduced to meagre stumps slowed. A bite that got way too close to his nape tore a scream from his throat: the pain was near unbearable. But the titan did not stop there; it proceeded to clench its vile maw and pull, effectively tearing out a large chunk of stringy, blood-covered flesh. 

His screams of anguish slowly died out and were replaced with pained whimpers and hollow warbling sounds – he was going to die.

Shadowed turquoise eyes wandered to the sky, temporarily blinded by the sun shining brightly as if in mockery of his incoming demise – he marvelled at its cerulean hue broken only by the occasional soft clouds. Tendrils of smoke and steam curled up into the sky, his body now numb to the feeling of teeth and deformed, scrabbling fingers tearing him apart. His consciousness was slowly drifting away, bringing with it the darkness pooling in from the corners of his vision – reality was getting more difficult to hang on to. His eyelids transformed into lead shutters and it became a herculean effort to merely keep his eyes open; strength leaving him at last, he strayed into oblivion. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this'll probably be the last chapter for a few weeks - my GCSE Mocks are upon me and they'll be taking up pretty much all of my time. Feel free to comment any ideas you may have for the story ( I have a plan but I'm also more than open to working in good ideas from the people that engage with my awful fics haha).
> 
> Edit: 5th Jan 2021
> 
> Hoooly shizzle, guys! 100 kudos and over 1000 hits - this is incredible. Thank you all so much for giving this fic a chance. Honestly that’s all I wanted to pop in to say but also (chapter 3 is on its way). 🤫🤭


	3. Walls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this has taken so long to update, but at least you get a pretty long chapter? I'm joking, but seriously, I don't even have the excuse of mental health or school or anything - I'm just a really lazy person. Honestly, I wrote the bulk of this in probably three main sittings but sometimes I'd literally turn on my computer and then just turn it back off again because I felt that I just didn't know what to write. However, I finally found a place to cut off the chapter and I've already started the next one. I also reached the end of what my plan was so I've gotten more ideas and extended it so that this new plan will likely give me enough for another few chapters. 
> 
> Feel free to comment your thoughts, even if it's that you hate my writing! I'm always up for reading people's opinions. :)

He looked around with bleary eyes, colours and shapes blurred into vague forms of deep greens and earthy browns. The first thing he noticed was the lack of agonising pain, followed by the crackling of dead leaves underneath him each time he shifted in his daze. Vision beginning to clear, he cast his eyes upwards and was met with a far away umbrella of leaves but past that, a glistening sky void of clouds.

It was a sky of navy blue, speckled with dustings of scintillating stars, floating serenely alongside the silver moon, clear and full – they casted down a blanket of cool light, highlighting each turn of a green leaf and every pair of eyes that regarded it in unabashed awe reflected soft silver, much like his own. With great reluctance, he tore his longing eyes away from the tranquil sight and turned his attention to the surroundings closer to him.

It was then that he noticed something very odd. Though the trees had always been much taller than him, they now appeared as great pillars to the heavens; even the underbrush he would normally wade through with ease was now metres taller than him.

A sudden gush of searing heat washed over him, white steam curling through the air, serpentine, and he gazed to where it originated from, squinting against the barrage of scalding air sent his way.

His eyes fell upon a gargantuan corpse. 

Panic gripped him like a vice, compressing his lungs until each strained breath became no more than a quivering wheeze. His hands shook violently, legs bending at the knee and raising so that he could partially bury his face in them, avoiding looking at the cadaver. Moments passed in which his breathing gradually calmed and despite his fear, his curiosity got the best of him. He lifted his blurred gaze, blinked out the tears and set his eyes upon the body. Something was telling him that he must: that it was important.

From what he could remember from seeing his own reflection in large bodies of water, the colossal body was vaguely similar to him in appearance. However, it was evidently disintegrating; the vast ribcage was exposed – sparse scraps of stringy flesh hung onto ivory bones that were tainted by patches of red blood. It made it more difficult to discern what he was actually looking at. He looked further along the body, found its head and inhaled sharply.

He recognised that head; the shaggy dark brown hair, the viridian eyes now dulled with lifelessness, the jagged, serrated teeth perpetually exposed in a menacing grimace. With a jolt, he brought his own hand shakily before him, bringing it up to his face and feeling it hesitantly. He could feel the ragged breaths puffing out shallowly against his palm as he assessed the distinct lack exposed of teeth on the sides of his face; in their place was new flesh connecting his odd features together, reminiscent of the small creatures’ faces he had gotten a closer look at. Running his hands further along his face, he noticed his nose was smoother and less hooked and his eyes were much less sunken in, larger too.

Glancing around him, he discovered that the giant corpse wasn’t the only remains of the dead in this area; countless bodies of the small creatures lay stiff and in pieces, abandoned, just as he had been, by their comrades.

Not yet trusting unfamiliar legs, he crawled towards one of the small creatures. He ran his hands slowly over the cadaver, marvelling at the contraption sitting uselessly on its waist – it was the mechanism that these creatures used to fly. However, he found himself swiftly distracted by the unbridled rage that made his hands quiver. 

He had to utilise all the inner strength he could muster to refrain from maiming this creature more than it already had been. He found himself despising this person, whoever they were, purely for the crime of existing as part of the species that had forsaken him.

Unfamiliar wetness welled up in his eyes and spilled over, tainting bloody cheeks with tears until they dripped slowly off of his jaw like blood from a head wound. A hollow feeling simmered in his gut before a new, raw emotion replaced it, piercing his entire being until he broke out into strange, strangled sounds that tore through his throat and contorted his body into a curled-up position, cradling his hands to his chest as if to stave off such painful feelings. Great, wet, heaving breaths were punched out of him after each instinctual, gasping inhalation. A harrowing wail broke through the sobs, bleeding into the otherwise quiet atmosphere like the sudden influx of rain into a large pool of sorrow.

His eyes were clenched shut, tears relentlessly escaping the confines of his tear ducts and dripping long tracks of desolation down his face.

He didn’t know how much time had passed but at some point, the tears began to slow and at another, they stopped. His eyes reopened from where they had been squeezed shut and he quite abruptly became aware of the dangers of being on the forest floor, titans or not.

He surmised that he likely still had a few days, maybe even a couple of weeks to learn how to use the gear – it usually took about that long for more titans to come upon his territory. Titans were sure to return soon though; the moon was already lowering in the sky, soon to disappear and be replaced with the sun that brought with it many of the horrors of this world.

In the minimal light, he reached forward and located the corpse with the small creature’s flying mechanism on it. He was eventually able to separate the machine from the creature but was left staring down at it, unsure as to what to do next. He settled for tracking down another of the bodies and, upon doing so, discovered that the mechanism he had perched in his arms was in fact incomplete – broken. After discovering this, he decided to locate every remaining corpse and compare each set of metallic gear.

It took until the sun was just rising above the horizon, vivid beams of incandescent, warm-toned light glinting through dark silhouetted trees for him to go through every piece of gear, comparing them thoroughly and meticulously disassembling each part to find which of them were correct and whole. Utilising a few of the bodies that retained the gear, he copied how they had worn it and manoeuvred himself into the mechanism’s straps successfully.

However, he realised that merely equipping themselves with the gear is not what helped the small creatures – or him now, he supposed – fly. The cognisance of this made him realise that there were other factors that led to the end goal of soaring higher amongst the trees than even he in his larger form could have reached. This resulted in him touching every inch of gear in the hopes of finding what he was clumsily looking for until he recalled the actions of the small creatures he’d witnessed in his time of observing them. 

He settled his hands on things he was sure were handles and slipped his first two fingers into holes he assumed were made for them, judging by how the rest of his hand fit around the grip. Holding them tighter, he found that underneath his first two fingers there was a bit of give and so he pressed down tentatively with his index finger. Abruptly, some sort of wire shot out, embedding itself into the tree in front of him. Walking closer to it revealed that on the end of the wire – the part partially imbedded into the tree – there was a vicious-looking hook that had splintered the wood of the trunk and gripped onto it. Concluding that the second trigger was used to release the wire, he pressed it only to fly forward, gas billowing out behind him.

He collided painfully with the tree; blood was swiftly dripping from his nose and he wiped it away on his bare shoulder, grimacing at the potent metallic scent. Steam flowed out from his nose as it healed swiftly. 

So the second trigger was not, in fact, used to release the wire but it was instead used to release gas and propel him. He assumed it was for the purpose of gaining greater velocity and distance when the wires could not grant him such. Deducing that the final trigger, the extended metal piece was used to reel the wire back in, he pressed it and was nearly knocked back with the force at which the wire and hook returned to the mechanism itself.

It took him a short while longer to uncover the mysteries of the gear and get a hang of the movements and balance required. He ignored the blades for now, as he was definitely unprepared to slaughter titans with them like the small creatures had.

Using the mechanism, he managed to clumsily yet successfully propel and hook himself onto a low-hanging tree branch, looking down at the forest floor. He was not nearly as high up as he would have been in his standing titan form and so set himself a goal to make it that high soon. However, the sun was once again lowering and it painted the sky in a myriad of calming pinks, oranges and yellows. The final sun rays of the day whispered lovingly to him as they fell beyond the horizon and he settled himself on the branch he had used the gear to land on and succumbed to sleep, his mind stilled lulled into slumber despite its thrumming excitement.

* * *

Training himself to use the gear as gracefully and successfully as the small creatures had proved to be an extremely strenuous battle. He’d spent days and days soaring unsteadily through the trees, occasionally getting ahead of himself and attempting movements that were far too advanced for him. It more often than not resulted in steam curling into the cooling air.

However, once he became efficient with the basic movements of the mechanism, he allowed himself to mimic more advanced movements he remembered witnessing from the small creatures’ various battles.

It became like a dance: rapid spins and twirling movements, using trees to push off of and back into open air and stomach-dropping nosedives that he pulled out of just before hitting the ground. At some point it became less about mimicking the small creatures and more about finding new challenges and moves that made him feel free.

He was quick as a falcon, becoming scarily adept at using gear so foreign just a few weeks ago. All he did was practice with the machine, even when the titans returned, he merely began to use the blades to decimate them; the satisfaction he felt from slicing through flesh at such high speeds was astounding.

Time passed swiftly when he used the gear and before long he began noticing that the trees’ leaves were becoming warm-toned oranges, reds and browns. He practiced still when snow fell gently, piling up beneath him and coating everything in a thick layer of ivory. White coloured the ground and cushioned his – less frequent – falls (though the cold was really quite unpleasant). 

Eventually, possibly six months after he’d begun using the gear, he heard the telltale cacophonous sound of hooves thundering towards his forest. A grin pulled at his lips, bright eyes glistening with relief before his brow furrowed and his mouth unintentionally turned down, raw anger simmering in his gut, replacing the initial feeling of elation. It was an emotion he hadn’t felt in so long that the unpleasantness of it had escaped his memory.

Bitterness was heavy on his tongue and a grating sound travelled up his jaw to his ears from where he was grinding his teeth together. His nose scrunched up, teeth bearing in a snarl that he voiced, minutely surprised at the viciousness of it – he hadn’t made such a familiar sound since he had transformed.

These were the creatures that abandoned him; the ones that left him to be devoured and dragged into nothingness by death’s abhorrent claws.

For once restraining his fury – he wasn’t sure it was a good idea to be spotted by these creatures – he decided that he was going to infiltrate their group once they were amongst the trees. Veiled in large leaves and black shadows, he observed as one-by-one, the small creatures used their machines to settle into the trees, far from the reaches of even the tallest of titans.

He flipped the hood of his cloak over his head, effectively concealing his identity for now, and streaked down onto a desolate tree branch closer to the group. Not even a single one of the creatures turned to look at him; they instead had their eyes focussed on two people standing commandingly on a higher branch. It was safe to assume that those two were the leaders of the group.

His face was frigid; eyes normally alight with wonder and excitement now glacial and hostile. Jaw set, he glared up at the two creatures and awaited their words – though he had a feeling he would be unable to understand them.

“I will now go over the plan for this expedition once more:” The creature with blonde hair spoke in such a booming voice that it carried even further than the group of which boasted maybe fifty people. “We are here to find out if the Rogue Titan still lives and if so, we are to restrain it and bring it back to headquarters. If you encounter a normal titan, release a red flare. If you encounter an abnormal titan, release a black flare. In the case of an emergency, release a purple flare. If you encounter the Rogue Titan, release the newly-made white flare. These will only be in operation for this expedition and so you only have two each in case of a mistake – use them accurately. We have stationed the horses outside the forest where we came in – on the Eastern front. Return to them when Captain Ackerman or I release a blue flare. We have four hours to search; time yourselves and return to the horses when the time is up. Today will be our only chance before we have to return to the Walls.”

Though he did not understand the words spoken, he continued to watch the two leaders and marvelled at the commanding presence he could feel even from so far away and despite having never felt such a thing prior.

A flurry of movement brought him out of his head and he too took to the skies, flying alongside the small creatures in search of something unknown to him. Leaves rustled violently with the onslaught of bodies whizzing past them, white gas billowing out behind the small creatures, propelling them further into the forest when natural gravity and the wires’ acceleration failed them.

Subtly, he watched the small creatures around him, noticing that every now and then, one would use a sharp hand movement and the others would move accordingly to the person’s wishes. As he didn’t know the meaning of the signals, he was forced to observe closely and mimic the others’ movements. Thankfully his skill and speed with the gear made up for any time lost in the delay when he would look to copy the others.

He tried to break apart from the group to let himself free and use his skills to spin gracefully in the air but the same person who had given the hand gestures shouted something at him. The tone of it sounded like a reprimand and he was sure it was to fall back to the group again – he did so but with a scowl on his face that was still covered by the hood.

* * *

It seemed that the small creatures were unnerved by the distinct lack of titans. They were muttering lowly to each other, surveying the constantly changing area around them cautiously, suspiciously.

By that point, he was sure that they would have normally encountered, and lost lives to many more titans than they had on their current mission, especially that deep in the forest. What they hadn’t, and couldn’t have accounted for in that situation, was him.

For months, since gaining the flying gear, he had been decimating titans even more diligently than before, realising that despite being so efficient with the machinery, he was still more vulnerable to titan attacks than he was in his larger form.

Thus, leaving a lack of titans in the part of the forest that he called home – he was sure, however, that the further away from his territory they got, the more titans there would be. But for then they continued soaring through the air, wind still retaining a sharp bite from winter against their faces despite the cold season having ended weeks ago.

This aimless flying about continued for the better part of three hours until their group encountered a titan. Before one of the small creatures could even begin to remove the correct flare from its holster, the titan’s nape was falling heavily to the ground and he was standing proudly on its head even as it began to tip forward to the forest floor. He watched the others curiously and saw various emotions cross their faces – ones of shock, admiration and even outright hostility as such was the expression on the leader’s face.

The leader flew over, landing before him and yelling in his face as if he had done something wrong. However, when he tried to explain to them that he thought he was supposed to kill titans, all that came out was a garbled mess of foreign words that neither he nor the others seemed to understand.

The leader stood in confusion for a minute before they reached out, ignoring his flinch, and tugged the hood of his cloak so that it revealed his face. He hurriedly pulled it back down to cover his features but was not quick enough that the leader of the group had not seen him. Even though it was only the leader that had seen his face, the rest must have realised fairly quickly that he wasn’t a part of their group as each of them moved themselves into defensive positions, hostility radiating off them like the blistering steam that usually emanated from his wounds.

He stumbled back off the titan’s corpse, all of a sudden feeling like a newborn deer on unsteady legs and gazed helplessly as his cover was blown. They didn’t know what he was, but they knew he didn’t belong.

Someone fired a purple flare, the coloured smoke curling snake-like amongst the light mist already clouding the sky in a faint white-grey backdrop. Silver blades reflecting the minimal light of the sun were pointed at him, keeping him encased in a threatening circle of distrust. Not a word was spoken, the silence amongst the small creatures prevailing even as the buzzing of the gear reached his ears. He looked up, waiting for the small creatures to appear and only vaguely noticed the perplexed expressions of those around him. 

The whirring finally grew close enough for the small creatures to hear it and the unanimous but muted confusion morphed into complete bewilderment as they realised that he had heard their reinforcements far before them.

He recognised the two leaders instantly when they dropped onto the ground, brows furrowed in both suspicion and befuddlement. The blonde creature was tall, blue eyes calculating and honed in on him within the circle of blades. The other was almost comically short beside him, piercing grey eyes fixed upon him just as the larger creature’s was.

Dread curled unpleasantly in his stomach and bubbled up into a roaring fear that fogged his mind and made the rushing of blood in his ears all he could hear. As soon as the blonde one opened its mouth to speak, he did too and released a piercing screech that forced the small creatures to cover their ears in pain.

Not a second had passed from when the harrowing sound had ended that blundering titans came pouring in from all sides, hell-bent on destroying the small creatures. For once they all ignored him and merely grabbed at the group surrounding him. They were successful at gripping the leader who had seen his face – he was morbidly relieved at that but the titans failed in eating the two main leaders: the short one and the blonde one.

The action was like a perilous storm; billowing capes were whipping every which way in the wind and the sounds of screams and the heavy footfalls of the titans blurred into one shrill symphony. They seemed to have forgotten about him for the moment and he took his chance to escape, flitting through giant bodies of flesh as if he were no more than an insect.

Instead of forsaking the small creatures like they had done to him months ago, he took the name Death for himself and obliterated the titans around him, saving many of the small creatures and eventually making his way towards where the others were grouped, beginning to flee on their horses. Whilst they fled, he continued killing titans on the forest line before turning and propelling himself through mid-air towards the group using the gas still left in his gear.

He began riding one of the horses – or, more accurately, let the horse follow its commands while he sat on it. Having successfully infiltrated the group – the small creatures were too preoccupied with surviving – he let himself smile and rode with them to wherever they had come from, something he had not seen before then.

They rode for a long time, smoke of red and green occasionally colouring the grey sky. Curiously, every time the green colour became visible, the horses changed direction; he was miffed as to why but speculated that it was some sort of system for avoiding titans as he hadn’t seen one of the blundering beasts yet.

Abruptly, something grey – a darker grey than the sky – rose up over the hills. As they rode closer, it became clear to him that this was a gigantic, curved stone wall. It was a wall big enough that he could tell, even from this far away, that it would be able to keep out even the largest of titans.

The wall had semi-circular extensions of itself poking out from the main wall, and it was in one of those that a gate was located. Somehow, the great mass of material that made up the gate lifted up, allowing him and the small creatures entrance to the town beyond. When they all rode through the road, something also unfamiliar to him, he observed two lines of many small creatures on either side of said road.

Many appeared to be shouting words at them, some even throwing objects – one of which hit him directly on the top of his head. These beings were not wearing the mechanism and green cloaks that were now so familiar to him but instead donned simple clothing of muted beiges and other such desaturated colours. Deciding that the creatures weren’t worth observing for the moment, he turned his attention to his surroundings.

Buildings of wood and stone rose tall around him, though much smaller than his large form, and those great walls were still visible even as he rode further and further into the small creatures’ home.

Whilst gazing at the walls, he realised that he had no idea what he was getting himself into and his eyes widened in fear, anxiety tensing his muscles and adrenaline triggering his fight or flight response. He was riding into unknown territory, far away from his home without the knowledge of how to return. He doubted they’d just open the gate for him alone; it seemed they had these walls for very good reasons. Namely, the titans.

In spite of his numerous attempts, he had been unable to return to his former body since he changed. He wasn’t even sure he would be able to leave this place, walled in as it was.

He felt caged.

Inside of his panicked mind, he had not realised that the noise had been drowned out by his overbearing thoughts but now that he had returned, it came back full force. Still panicked, he made his decision and used his gear to propel himself off of the horse and away from the small creatures gathered there. He used the buildings and his expertise with the machine to his advantage, zipping over roofs and through darkened alleyways at great speeds, avoiding collisions with the small creatures dotted about the area successfully.

Hearing shouts behind him, he turned ever so slightly and witnessed one of the leaders – the short one – trying to keep up with him in his escape. The creature was yelling at him, saying words he could not understand and chasing after him; it only made him double his efforts to escape.

He was being chased – this place, these people were not safe for him. It was best he continued to live in solitude until he discovered a method for leaving these walls.

After a few tense minutes of being hounded like prey, he lost his pursuer within the complicated and chaotic building arrangements and was free to find a hiding place – seeing as his enemies used the same gear as him, perhaps it was not a smart thing to keep to the skies no matter how confident in his abilities he may have been.

So he swiftly set off on foot, scouring the places with the most shadow for a temporary residency all the while avoiding the small creatures going about their mysterious lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the reasons I struggled so much with this chapter is that I really didn't know how to get Eren inside the walls but now that he's there, I've got a clear idea on how I'm going to make him human! Or at least as human as a person that was originally a massive, 15 metre titan can be.


End file.
